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June 18, 2013

Happy Woulda-been 100th Birthday, Bob!

Robert Mondavi in 1966

My friend Robert Mondavi would have turned 100-years-old
today.

To commemorate his 100th birthday, and
acknowledge how much he influenced the lives of so many of us living in Napa
Valley, Margrit Mondavi, and Bob’s eponymous winery, hosted a birthday party of
sorts this afternoon.

Margrit Mondavi and Genevieve
Janssens, Director of Winemaking.

Some 200 guests assembled on the lawn at the foot of Bob’s
favorite vineyard, To Kalon, and toasted to his memory with a glass of
perfectly chilled Robert Mondavi Fume Blanc. Bob would have loved it.

Margrit spoke and said that her 28 years married to Robert
were among the most cherished of her life.

Genevieve Janssens, Director of Winemaking at Mondavi, spoke
and said that going forward, all Mondavi Reserve Cabernet bottlings would, for
the first time, be made exclusively with fruit from the To Kalon vineyard,
which Bob identified as being the most important, best producing, vineyard in
the valley.

“Mr. Mondavi always urged us to keep improving our wines,”
said Genevieve. “From now on, we will only use fruit from To Kalon in our reserve
Cabernet... which is one more way to keep improving our wines,” she added.

To make better wine, to make wine as good as, or better
than, the wines coming out of the Old World, that was Bob’s passion.

And boy, did he make a difference and prove his point.

I remember nights in the winery’s Vintage Room, well beyond
1 am, spent with Bob and one of his visiting Great Chefs of France, like Jean
Troisgros, or Paul Bocuse, sipping and comparing Mondavi Cabernets, or Mondavi
Pinot Noirs, with French selections from Bordeaux, or Burgundy, respectively.

The chefs always agreed that Bob was on to something... that
his wines complemented their dishes equally as well as any wines they brought
over from France, and quite a few chefs agreed, off the record in our late
night tasting sessions, that they liked Bob’s Napa Valley wines more.

Happy Birthday, Bob, wherever you are. I raised a glass to
your memory this afternoon, and I shall do so again tonight. It’s an ideal
occasion to pull an old Mondavi Cabernet out of the cellar and thank you, one
more time, for having introduced me to Napa
Valley.